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Monday, February 18, 2013

How To Win a Giveaway: Top 7 Tips

Hey everyone! As you all know I love entering giveaways. I think it's a great way to acquire new products if your pockets are tight, and nothing really beats the feeling of winning a giveaway!

I've won I think about 5 or 6 giveaways to-date, so I thought I'd share some tips. I guess when it comes down to it, you need to have a bit of luck on your side, but I've noticed there are a few ways to approach a giveaway effectively.

An assortment of my giveaway wins to-date (not all of them - just a few)

1) Make sure you're eligible: There's nothing more disappointing/annoying than winning a giveaway that you were not eligible for in the first place (some giveaways are UK only, for example). It's crucial to read all the terms before entering - this will make your life and the giveaway host's life much easier.
2) You need to have a GFC account: To be honest, I've no clue how to make one - you'll need to Google that for yourself (sorry! I made mine so long ago I forgot how!), but most blog giveaways require that you follow them via GFC. Also - up your chances by creating accounts on the following platforms: HelloCotton, Bloglovin', Klout, SheSaidBeauty, Instagram, and YouTube. Of course, you will need Facebook to join a Rafflecopter giveaway, and a Twitter account is important too.
3) Enter every day/as often as you can via Twitter: Most blog giveaways allow an extra entry for a daily tweet. I suggest creating a separate Twitter account for blogging & giveaway purposes to avoid spamming your friends with giveaway tweets (mine is abundanceerica, for example), but be careful - many bloggers know that people create accounts solely for giveaways and could disqualify your entries, so make sure you use it to interact with #bbloggers as well (i.e. don't take advantage of people by creating multiple accounts!).

4) Misc. Twitter entry tips: The following are a few ways to make tweeting about giveaways easy.

Step 1: Click the "Tweet" button on the giveaway widget. This will open up a dialogue box containing a pre-written tweet & therefore will save you the trouble of having to make one up yourself.

Step 2: Add the hashtag #giveaway to the beginning of your tweet. This will simplify your life when it comes to tweeting daily. You can more easily discern giveaway tweets from your other tweets. For an example feel free to view my Twitter page - how quickly did you locate my giveaway tweets?

Step 3: For a split second, your dialogue box will change to this and then close. You'll need to be quick - before it closes, click "View it on Twitter -->". This will send you to a direct link of your tweet so that you can easily copy & paste it into the giveaway widget (seen in Step 1).

5) Write up a blog post about current giveaways: Every once in a while, write up a blog post linking current giveaways. Most giveaways give a good amount of entries for completing this. Also, you will get tons of hits on your blog - they're some of my most viewed posts! Check out my most recent one HERE.

6) Don't disregard non-Rafflecopter giveaways: Although I couldn't imagine holding a giveaway without using Rafflecopter (genius system, really), it's a good idea to enter non-Rafflecopter giveaways as well. These tend to be more low-profile and you will have a better chance in winning because they tend to circulate the web less.

7) Enter Twitter/Facebook/YouTube giveaways too: Many cosmetic companies will have giveaways on Twitter asking you to follow and retweet for a chance to win. I've won a Benetint from @BenefitCanada by doing this! Facebook giveaways are good to enter as well - except I participate less because they usually involve spamming your friends. YouTube giveaways are more difficult to win because YouTubers tend to have a bigger following, therefore more people will be inclined to enter, however I did win Amarixe's Lush giveaway recently so they're worth a shot! My tip would be to bookmark YouTube giveaways and re-name them to the date they close - that way you know how much time to you have to enter.

BONUS TIP: Never, ever, ever unfollow a blog after their giveaway is over. I won't even explain this. Just don't be rude.

That's all folks! I hope you found this post useful! I think I may write up a post about how to host a giveaway properly (seeing as I've done 4 thus far so I have some experience)... Let me know if you'd enjoy reading that in the comments!